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"Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram" (an article from the Christian
Research Journal, Fall 1991, page 14) by Mitchell Pacwa, S.J.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is
Elliot Miller.
-------------
In America and abroad a system of classifying personality types
-- the _enneagram_ -- is becoming very popular. Strictly speaking,
the enneagram is a circle with nine points on it (_ennea_ means
"nine" in Greek, and _gram_ means "line drawing"). Inside the
circle two figures connect the nine points, a triangle and an oddly
shaped six-pointed figure. Most people who refer to the enneagram,
however, relate it to a personality typology system based on this
drawing. In workshops they learn that only nine personality types
exist and that every person fits into one of them. Each of these
nine types represents a personality compulsion, a wrong or even
"demonic" way of behaving. Once a person identifies his or her type
(usually classified by a number on the enneagram), then he or she
can supposedly learn how to improve, or at least avoid getting
worse, spiritually.
The enneagram is particularly popular among Catholic groups,
with parishes and retreat houses offering workshops across the
country. Rarely are teachers or participants aware of its occultic
origins, something that should be a source of real concern for the
Christian church. Echoes of a false, Gnostic theology are heard in
enneagram teachings, though its occult roots are masked. The lack
of scientific research into the enneagram system is an additional
cause for concern. This article will examine these three aspects of
the enneagram: its occultic roots, its Gnostic theology, and its
lack of scientific support.
*HISTORICAL BACKGROUND -- GEORGE GURDJIEFF*
The man credited with bringing the enneagram figure to the West
is George Ilych Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian from what is now Soviet
Georgia. He apparently enjoyed being shrouded in mystery, as seen
in the different dates he gave for his birth: he told some
disciples it was 1869. But his passport had the date December 28,
1877. He told others that an Edison phonograph was playing during
his birth, confirming 1877, the year the phonograph was invented.
Others said he was 77 years old when he died, placing his birth
year in 1872. (Gurdjieff was known to be a liar and to make
outrageous claims in order to shock disciples into spiritual
change; perhaps the secret about his age belonged to the outrage.)
According to Gurdjieff's book _Meetings with Remarkable Men,_
a sort of autobiography, his family wanted him to study for the
Orthodox priesthood, while his own interests were in studying
science and technology. Meanwhile, a local priest suggested both
seminary and medical school so he could heal both soul and body.[1]
Gurdjieff ultimately rejected all of the above because of his
fascination with the occult. Astrology, mental telepathy, spiritism
and table turning, fortune telling, and demon possession all held
his interest as a youth.[2] He would not listen to his priest's
warnings about these things, nor did he find the explanations of
science very satisfying, either. Therefore, in his late teens, he
set out to pursue these occult "sciences," traveling throughout
central Asia, the Mediterranean basin, Egypt, Tibet, and India. The
special goal of his search was the esoteric Sarmouni school,
allegedly founded in Babylon around 2500 B.C. He had read about it
in an ancient Armenian book and felt drawn to find this school.
Gurdjieff supported himself throughout this spiritual venture
with legitimate businesses (e.g., selling carpets) and fraudulent
enterprises (e.g., coloring sparrows with aniline dye, calling them
"American canaries," and selling them at a great profit). So
enterprising was he that he eventually became a millionaire.
Gurdjieff relates that while in Afghanistan, around 1897, a
dervish (a type of Muslim mystic or _Sufi_) introduced him to an
old man of the Sarmouni sect he had been searching for. As the
story goes, this man arranged for an expedition to take Gurdjieff
to the Sarmouni monastery in central Turkestan, where he learned
their mystical dancing, psychic powers, and the enneagram. For the
Sarmounis the enneagram was important as a means of divination to
foretell future events as well as a tool to represent life
processes, such as personal transformation.[3] They also used it as
a symbol of the conscious and unconscious states in human
beings.[4] These uses would become part of Gurdjieff's spiritual
teaching when he founded his own school for attaining
enlightenment.
Upon leaving the Sarmouni monastery, Gurdjieff formed a group,
the Seekers of Truth, as his companions in the quest for
enlightenment and (full) consciousness.[5] They reportedly traveled
to Tibet to make contact with the "awakened" inner circle of
humanity and to learn the wisdom of the _tulkas,_ the supposedly
reincarnated Tibetan lamas (monks).[6] Later Gurdjieff snuck into
Mecca and Medina, the centers of Islam, but failed to find inner
truth there. Then he went to Bokhara, where the Bahaudin Naqshbandi
band of Sufis lived.[7]
These Naqshbandi Sufis, also called the Khwajagan or "Masters
of Wisdom," claimed to be the "World Brotherhood," composed of all
nationalities and religions, teaching that "all were united by God
the Truth." Typical of central Asian belief, the Naqshbandis had a
legend of an inner circle of humanity who formed a network of
highly evolved people with special knowledge. These people
allegedly watch over the human race and direct the course of its
history.
The Naqshbandis also believed in a perpetual spiritual
hierarchy headed by the _Kutb i Zaman_ or "Axis of the Age," a
personal spirit receiving direct revelations of the divine purpose.
This spirit purportedly transmits these revelations to humans
through other spirits called the Abdal or "Transformed Ones."[8]
Gurdjieff and his followers believed that these spirits, "demiurgic
essences" from a higher level than man, were responsible for
maintaining planetary harmony and evolution. However, their work is
not necessarily favorable to the liberation of individuals.[9]
Despite their potential hostility, Gurdjieff and his followers
maintained contact with these spirits.
Anyone familiar with Madame Blavatsky and Theosophy will
recognize similar beliefs in highly evolved "masters."[10] Perhaps
she learned about the masters from traditions similar to those
Gurdjieff learned in Central Asia. Remember, she had traveled
through the same areas of Asia only thirty or forty years before
Gurdjieff.
The Naqshbandis also taught Gnostic doctrines. For instance,
they taught Gurdjieff that faith arose "from understanding" which
is "the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and
from all kinds of experiences personally experienced." Only
understanding can lead on to God and only experience and
information allow one to acquire a soul.[11] This approach to faith
places Gurdjieff squarely in the Gnostic camp outside Christianity.
For Christians, faith is a gift from God; it is available to the
brilliant or the retarded, the aged or the child, independent of
whether a human understands or not. Instead of human understanding
leading to God, it is God who comes to humans, offering to dwell
within our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
After years of travel, the millionaire Gurdjieff returned to
Russia in 1912. In Moscow he established the Institute for the
Harmonious Development of Man to train disciples to teach the world
what he had learned in his travels. However, Moscow soon became an
inopportune place for a millionaire, so in 1915 he returned to
Armenia. The arrival of the Bolsheviks in Armenia meant the exit of
a shady capitalist like Gurdjieff, who moved successively to
Istanbul, Berlin, Dresden, and finally (in 1922) to Paris, where he
reopened his Institute.[12]
In Paris (and the New York branch of the Institute, which
opened in 1924), he taught "esoteric Christianity" along with a
program to help students reach the highest levels of consciousness.
His Sufi/Gnostic-inspired doctrine included the belief that
everyone has three personal centers: the mental, located in the
head (_path_), the emotional, located in the heart (_oth_), and the
physical, located in the belly (_kath_). One prime cause for people
being spiritually "asleep" or "mechanical" was the imbalance of
these three centers within each person. His Sufi dances and other
exercises were designed to restore balance to these three centers
and move the person closer to an alert spiritual state.
Gurdjieff also taught that everyone has an essence and a
personality. The essence is "the material of which the universe is
made. Essence is divine -- the particle of god in our subconscious
called Conscience."[13] The personality is a mask of compulsive
behavior which covers the essence. Though everyone is born in
essence, they choose a personality ego style around the age of
three or four. It is nearly impossible to return to the essence,
but with slow, deliberate, conscious work one can arrive at it
again.[14] Note that Gurdjieff's doctrine of "essence" places him
squarely among the pantheists (who believe that everything is God).
Enneagram teachers who recommend that students return to this
essence rarely understand what Gurdjieff meant, but his words make
it clear that he did not have a Christian sense of God. This is one
reason he claimed to teach "esoteric Christianity"; orthodox
Christianity proclaims we are creatures of God, not divine
particles.
The enneagram figured prominently in Gurdjieff's teaching, as
seen by its frequent appearance in his disciples' books (though not
in his own). The Sufis had used the enneagram for numerological
divination. (Numerology is an occult "science" which holds that the
characteristics of people and virtually everything in the universe
are determined by numbers, and that such characteristics can be
divined if the people or things' individual numbers can be
identified [e.g., from their names or dates of birth] and the
meaning of those numbers can be determined.) The Sufis searched for
the mystical meanings of the decimals .3333..., .6666..., and
.9999... (based on dividing the number _one_ by _three_), and of
the decimal .142857... (based on dividing the number one by seven
and containing no multiples of three).[15] The multiples of three
correspond to the triangle inside the circle, and the decimal
.142857 (derived by dividing seven into one and resulting in a
repeating decimal that never contains three or its multiples)
corresponds to the points on the circle that connect the six-sided
figure.
Through these two figures inside the enneagram circle, each
based on the decimals of three into one and seven into one,
Gurdjieff was able to manifest the great numerological laws of the
_three_ and the _seven._ He taught that "all things in life work on
two laws -- 3 and 7." All psychological laws fall within the _law
of three_ -- as with the three personality centers, and all
material things fall within the _law of seven._[16]
Gurdjieff and his followers made tremendous claims for the
enneagram as a result of these numerological beliefs. Piotr (or
Peter) D. Ouspensky, a mathematician, writer, and Gurdjieff
disciple, quoted Gurdjieff as saying: "Only what a man is able to
put into the enneagram does he actually _know,_ that is,
understand. What he cannot put into the enneagram he does not
know."[17] In other words, any information that cannot be assigned
its numerical value and then run through the enneagram diagram
could not be understood in terms of its true cosmic significance.
The process of knowing something through the enneagram meant
distinguishing between the functional steps of a process, which
must always follow the nine points around the circle, and the "will
cycle," which follows the inner figure along the lines between
points 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, 7.[18]
Gurdjieff taught that the enneagram has the power to reveal the
"timeless" aspect of any cosmic process, since the enneagram is a
symbol of the cosmos (i.e., the universe itself is ordered
according to the same numerical arrangement as the enneagram).[19]
Therefore Gurdjieff instructed his students in the enneagram of
cooking (symbolizing the process of personal transformation), which
had nine steps and six inner dynamics. John Bennett, a Gurdjieff
student, came to believe that the "enneagram is more than a picture
of yourself, it is yourself....the enneagram is a living diagram
and...we can experience ourselves as enneagrams." He came to this
understanding when Ouspensky drew the enneagram on a blackboard and
Bennett "felt myself going out of myself and entering the
diagram."[20] The enneagram of personality developed from similar
beliefs held by other Gurdjieff disciples.
*HISTORICAL BACKGROUND -- OSCAR ICHAZO*
Many different Gurdjieff groups formed after his death, such as
Gurdjieff-Ouspensky Centres, Robert Burton's Fellowship of Friends,
the Theater of All Possibilities, and the Institute for the
Development of the Harmonious Human Being. The one most influential
in the spread of the enneagram of personality is the Arica training
(named for a city in northern Chile), a "human potential" program
founded by Oscar Ichazo. Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean
psychologist and former Esalen instructor, are both disciples of
Gurdjieff, and together (according to Naranjo) originated the
enneagram of personality types. Their ideas are closely related to
Gurdjieff's thought, especially regarding the structure and use of
the enneagram.
At age six Ichazo became disillusioned with the Catholic church
because its teachings contradicted what he learned through occultic
out-of-body experiences. He rejected what his Jesuit teachers said
about heaven and hell, claiming to have been there and learned more
about it than Christ and the church. He came to believe that living
in one's subjectivity was the real hell, but people could become
free of it. He then studied Oriental martial arts, Zen, yoga,
shamanism, hypnotism, and psychology, and experimented with Andes
Indian psychedelic drugs, to learn techniques to free himself from
hellish subjectivity.
An elderly man (anonymous) in La Paz, Bolivia introduced the
nineteen-year old Ichazo to a group in Buenos Aires studying
"esoteric consciousness-altering techniques." Ichazo impressed the
group with his ability, so they offered him the chance to travel to
Hong Kong, India, and Tibet to study more martial arts, higher
yogas, alchemy, the I Ching, and Confucianism.[21]
Along the way Ichazo came to believe, as Gurdjieff did, in a
hierarchy of spirits and entities. He allegedly receives
instructions from a higher entity called "Metatron, the prince of
the archangels," and the members of his group contact lower spirits
through meditation and mantras. Ichazo now considers himself a
"master" in contact with all the previous masters of the esoteric
school, including those who have died. Students of his Arica
training are helped and guided by an interior master, the Green
Qu'Tub, who makes himself known when a student reaches a
sufficiently high stage of development.[22] Apparently it is the
same as _Qutb i Zaman,_ the spirit in charge of the hierarchy that
speaks through other spirits, as taught by Gurdjieff (_see_ above).
Somewhere in his spiritual search, Ichazo learned the
enneagram. Perhaps applying Gurdjieff's principle that nothing is
known until placed into the enneagram, Ichazo developed a system of
nine personality types, each corresponding to the enneagram's nine
points. The personality theory behind the types is based on
Gurdjieff's idea that everyone has turned away from the essence
into which they were born and chosen an ego type. This compulsive
ego turns people into machines and puts them spiritually asleep.
According to Naranjo's report, Oscar Ichazo gave these nine
compulsive ego types some "dirty" names: resent, flattery, go,
melancholy, stingy, coward, plan, venge, and indolent.[23] Ichazo
further identified Holy Ideas and Virtues which correspond to each
of the nine types when a person reaches the essence level of higher
consciousness. He wrote short descriptions of each type and
employed animal symbols or "totems" to exemplify the qualities of
each.[24]
Helen Palmer's classic text on the enneagram gives a different
version of the origin of the enneagram of personality, which is
basically confirmed by Claudio Naranjo. Naranjo, too, had belonged
to Gurdjieff groups, but found them wanting. On a visit home to
Chile in the late 1960s he met Ichazo. Though not impressed with
him at first, he found him a powerful person once he had meditated
in his presence. He helped Ichazo develop the enneagram and
disseminate it in America. Naranjo contributed to the personality
descriptions and correlated the Freudian defense mechanisms to each
of the nine types. Then, in 1970, he brought a group of 50 Esalen
students, including John Lilly and Joseph Hart, to Arica, Chile for
Ichazo's training in the enneagram. When they returned to
California Naranjo taught the enneagram to Esalen students --
including Helen Palmer, Kathleen Riordan Speeth, and Fr. Robert
Ochs, S.J.[25] Though Naranjo claims that these people had promised
not to teach others the enneagram,[26] the above-named people have
written and lectured about it since the early 1970s. In particular,
Palmer has written one of the basic texts, and Ochs introduced it
to the Catholic community.
My contact with the enneagram came through Fr. Ochs, who taught
it at our Jesuit seminary. We students who learned it there also
promised not to teach it to anyone for at least two years, until we
could integrate it into our own lives. However, many of us, myself
included, could not resist the temptation to share this esoteric
teaching with others. Many of us led classes, seminars, and
retreats based on the enneagram, spreading it throughout the
Catholic community in America, Australia, and other countries.
Learning about the roots of the enneagram has been difficult
because it has been shrouded in secrecy. Its occultic background
was not taught to me, and most of the Catholic teachers know little
if anything about that aspect. Once I learned about its occultic
roots, however, it became clear that some of these teachings seeped
through to us, despite demythologization of the system. Bad
theology and poor pastoral practice have accompanied the enneagram,
for which reasons I now criticize it.
*CRITICISM*
Nearly all the enneagram books and lecturers accept Gurdjieff's
claim that the enneagram is very ancient, originating in the
Babylon or Mesopotamia of 2500 B.C. Faith in the enneagram's
antiquity is in effect a claim for its authority. However, in my
studies of ancient literature and archaeology, I find no evidence
for the enneagram's existence in ancient times, neither
inscriptions nor drawings. In fact, Ouspensky's books on Gurdjieff
are its earliest appearance. John Bennett says that the symbol may
go back to fourteenth century Sufis, since that was the time of the
discovery of zero and the decimal point.[27] The enneagram's
dependence on the decimal point for its inner shape prohibits an
earlier date. However, external evidence for a medieval date is
lacking; there is merely the _possibility_ that it has mathematical
roots back then.
After taking an enneagram course, I searched for more
information about the enneagram of personality types. While
Ouspensky and other Gurdjieff disciples described cosmic
interpretations of the enneagram, or used it to describe the
process of cooking or scientific experiments, none of them
described nine personality types. Only after hearing Claudio
Naranjo's lecture[28] and reading Palmer's book did I learn that
Oscar Ichazo invented the enneagram of personality types in the
1960s.
Significantly, Ichazo's enneagram employs the numerological
background of the Sufi decimal point symbolism in understanding
personality dynamics. For instance, according to the system, the
number _one_ gets worse by following the direction of the arrow on
the line connected to type _four; four_ gets worse by becoming like
a _two,_ and so forth. People improve by moving in the direction
opposite the arrows; that is, a _one_ gets better by becoming like
a _seven,_ a _seven_ should become like a _five,_ and so on.
Remember that this inner dynamic of the six-point figure and of the
triangle is based on the numerology of dividing seven into one or
three into one, a dynamic rooted in occultism and divination. This
occultic dynamic was Ichazo's _a priori_ structure into which he
conformed the nine personality types and their inner principles of
spiritual improvement or regression. Many people accept this and
adjust their spiritual and psychological life to these principles.
Even if one demythologizes the occultism, or assumes good will
among those who are ignorant of the occultic roots, one must
nonetheless demand an examination of this system by psychologists
and behavioral scientists. What is the evidence that a resentful
perfectionist (one) should seek the virtue of the happy-go-lucky
planner (seven)? Why should the vengeful, power-hungry person
(eight) become a helper (two) rather than seek other virtues?
Besides faith in the antiquity of the system, which it does not
possess, how can anyone know the best virtues to pursue for any
individual type? No research has been done in this regard, yet
enneagram experts suggest specific spiritual goals based on this
system to their students in parishes and retreat houses. The lack
of scientific study should set off alarms for anyone interested in
this approach to spiritual growth.
A second area to be questioned and tested is the existence of
the nine personality types. Nine is the _a priori_ number suggested
to Ichazo and Naranjo by the _occultic_ enneagram figure. What
_psychological_ proof do they have that only nine basic types
exist? And what is the evidence that these are in fact the correct
nine? This has not been researched, either.
A third area needing research is the theory of personality
structure taught by enneagram experts. Following Gurdjieff, they
assume everyone was born in their essence but chose an ego fixation
around age three or four. Children choose these egos as a defense
against their parents' egos, but get trapped by their own defense
mechanisms.
The experts also teach Gurdjieff's theory that three centers of
consciousness -- mind (_path_), heart (_oth_), and belly or
instinct (_kath_) -- is true. Some associate the head center with
types 5, 6, and 7; the feeling center with types 2, 3, and 4; and
the belly with types 8 and 9.[29] They teach Gurdjieff's doctrine
that human personality problems derive from the imbalance of these
three personality centers. One goal of enneagram therapy is
restoration of the interdependence of the three centers.[30] But
where is the evidence for the existence of such centers? Can
psychologists confirm their existence, describe their imbalance, or
test therapies that restore their balance? The enneagram industry,
as Naranjo now calls it, tries to awaken these centers through
"spiritual exercises" derived from yoga, zen, and Sufi practices,
much the same way that kundalini yoga attempts to awaken psychic
energy in the seven "chakras" of that school of yoga -- a practice
that is considered dangerous even by its own adherents. Why are the
enneagram teachers doing this, and what is their warrant except the
practices of occultists like Gurdjieff and his followers?
*Theological Problems with the Enneagram Doctrine*
Besides these scientific and psychological problems with the
enneagram, Christians have many theological difficulties with it.
The frequent use of such occult practices as divination and
spiritism in Gurdjieff and Ichazo immediately throws up a red flag.
In Deuteronomy 18:9-15 and many other Scripture passages, God our
Lord forbids such pursuits. Most of the "experts" I know, however,
avoid the occult or know nothing about its presence in the
enneagram's background. Despite this avoidance or ignorance,
theological problems appear in enneagram workshops across the
country.
Some enneagram experts claim that original sin begins when
small children choose their ego type or fixation. This is utter
nonsense to the Christian. Original sin, by its nature, is not some
wrong that a person commits. Rather, because of the Fall of our
first parents, Adam and Eve (in trying to "become like gods" by
grasping for forbidden knowledge about good and bad -- Gen. 3:5),
all humans inherit original sin. Due to the fallenness of human
nature, people are prone to commit actual sins, and frequently do
so. Identifying a three- or four-year old child's choice of
compulsion with original sin is a biblically false doctrine.
Another theological error follows from this one, namely, humans
can undo the effects of this so-called original sin of ego fixation
by means of Gurdjieff's, Ichazo's, or someone else's spiritual
"work." Certainly, people can get help from others to overcome
psychological problems, and they should seek the wisdom and counsel
of solid, Christian psychologists when they need that type of help.
However, such "work" can never be the removal of original sin, or
any other sin, for that matter. Only the saving death on the Cross
of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, can remove our sin. This is
a free gift of God's grace which no human can earn or deserve. We
accept this grace from the merciful God and return gratitude to
Him, which is itself His gift to us. Any removal of the _effects_
of sin -- the psychological residue or ramifications of sin -- may
be alleviated by psychological help along with other aids, such as
charity to the poor, proclaiming the Gospel, and so forth.
Further, the prophet Isaiah wrote that wisdom, understanding,
and counsel are gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isa. 11:2), so we should
seek psychological help from Christians blessed by these gifts. The
Christian should know and proclaim to the world that even
psychological techniques require God's grace if they are to be
effective in removing the effects of our sin. Both the forgiveness
of our sins and the removal of their effects demand God's unearned
grace in our lives.
Another theological error is the claim that Jesus our Lord
possesses the virtues of all nine types within Himself.[31] Only a
contrived exegesis (interpretation) of the Gospels permits this
silly idea. Assessing someone's personality is very difficult, even
when that person speaks directly to the therapist or interviewer.
Determining our blessed Lord's personality type from the Gospels is
an abuse both of Scripture and therapeutic technique. Jesus did not
grant any interviews for a psychological profile. Nor did He
personally compose the texts of the Gospels. How can anyone claim
to know His ego type from these texts?
Furthermore, the evangelists did not intend to give us a
psychological profile of Jesus; they intended to proclaim the
gospel that God became flesh, died on a cross, rose from the dead,
and thereby redeemed the world. The evangelists' purpose was to
summon the readers and hearers of the Gospels to a saving faith in
Jesus Christ, not to analyze the Lord! These claims are absurd and
should be rejected outright.
Naranjo taught that the Holy Idea or Virtue of each type is one
of the nine faces of God; the compulsive aspects of each type turns
the face of God upside-down and becomes a demon. The purpose of the
"work" is to free oneself from the demons. Perhaps Naranjo intended
this merely as a figure of speech, but it has become commonplace
within the enneagram industry. Any Christian who hears it should
recognize three errors here.
First, God does not have nine faces. Jesus our Lord revealed
that there are three coequal persons in the one God, forming what
the church has long called the Trinity. However, these three
persons are neither multiplying nor subdividing into nine faces.
That is a silly way to speak, ungrounded in divine revelation or
common sense.
Second, no human can turn the face of God upside-down,
right-side up, or any other way. God is our uncreated Sovereign,
unmoved by created beings in any direction. Claiming that the
upside-down face of God is a demon moves beyond absurdity to
blasphemy. God, who is all-good and all-loving, cannot be remolded
into a demon. No one should speak that way.
Third, as is true of sin, so also with demons: we humans cannot
free ourselves from the demons. God delivers us from them. No
technique or meditation delivers us from the power of evil or the
elemental spirits. Jesus our Savior saves us from these evils.
The enneagram practitioners, and anyone tempted to take their
courses, must become aware that their doctrine must conform to
Scripture and (at least in the view of the Catholic, but also to a
lesser extent for many Protestants) church teaching. Wherever their
teaching does not conform to God's revelation, they must adapt
themselves to God. No matter how esoteric the Sufi tradition or
what the claim may be, they will have to account to God for
spreading false doctrine in the church of Christ.
*Practical Problems with the Enneagram Industry*
Books and teachers frequently claim that the enneagram helps
everyone to categorize not only themselves but other people around
them. In its framework experts classify different types of people,
appreciate how they differ from us, and learn how to get along
better with dissimilar types. The teachers usually take public
figures as examples of the nine types. Palmer names groups of
"famous" people belonging to each type. For instance, good
Protestants such as Martin Luther and Jerry Falwell are "ones," as
are nonbelievers such as George B. Shaw and Ralph Waldo
Emerson.[32] The enneagram experts do not agree, however, on their
categorization of these characters. Some consider Hitler an
"eight," but Palmer makes him a "six." Similar contradictions exist
among the books and speakers.
A basic problem is that these famous people never had the
privilege of making the enneagram workshop, so they could not type
themselves. Therefore, when the experts categorize and countertype
famous people, their example teaches the students to categorize the
people they live with. Once one feels like an enneagram expert, one
can classify friends, spouse, or children. The expert may feel
privy to secret knowledge granting the power to categorize others.
The abuse that follows from this practice is the trivialization
of relationships. People believe they have more insight into
someone else than that person has: the inner dynamics of the
compulsions and the expected behaviors are known to the enneagram
expert better than to the person under consideration. This opens
some people to the abuse of relating to others on the basis of
their enneagram expectations rather than what the people actually
choose to reveal about themselves. This is not healthy but
potentially abusive. I have done it and have seen others do it.
Unleashing this on parish groups opens the way to serious problems
in the time between the end of the workshop and the cooling down of
the enneagram fad.
I do not have much respect for the enneagram industry at this
point. Its occultic roots have not been thoroughly purged (if they
can be), and it has opened itself to theological error and social
and psychological misuse. The lack of scientific investigation
means there are no controls to determine who actually is an expert,
nor which advice is helpful or detrimental, nor whether the goals
of the enneagram system are sound.
If anything of psychological value can be redeemed from the
enneagram, its practitioners must thoroughly purge the system of
unchristian elements. If any true insights within the system are to
be useful, it requires psychological testing and control.
Other-wise counselors will roam through the church, subtly taking
people away from Christ their Lord and perhaps doing damage to
their psyches. I recommend avoidance of the enneagram industry
until the day it can be made completely compatible with Christian
faith and sound scientific methodology, _if_ indeed that is
possible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*Fr. Mitchell Pacwa, S.J.,* is a professor of Scripture and Hebrew
at Loyola University of Chicago. His forthcoming book on the New
Age movement includes two chapters on the enneagram.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
*Notes*
1 Gurdjieff, _Meetings with Remarkable Men,_ 53-54.
2 _Ibid.,_ 37, 59-60, 62-72, 79-81, and psychic pet dog, 135.
3 Bennett, 3-4.
4 Gurdjieff, 148-65; Speeth and Friedlander, 113, 116.
5 Gurdjieff, 164-65.
6 Speeth and Friedlander, 81-82.
7 Gurdjieff, 227; Speeth and Friedlander, 93.
8 Speeth and Friedlander, 35-36.
9 Bennett, 75, 79, 83.
10 _See_ Walter Martin, _The Kingdom of the Cults_ (Minneapolis:
Bethany House, 1985), chapter eight, "The Theosophical Society."
11 Gurdjieff, 227-43.
12 _Ibid.,_ 270-85.
13 Anderson, 64.
14 _Ibid.,_ 63.
15 Riordan, 293; Bennett, 2-3.
16 Anderson, 71-72.
17 Ouspensky, _In Search of the Miraculous,_ 294.
18 Bennett, 31.
19 _Ibid.,_ 32, 47.
20 _Ibid.,_ 32.
21 Keen, 64.
22 Lilly and Hart, 341.
23 Naranjo.
24 Palmer, 46-47.
25 _Ibid.; see_ also Naranjo.
26 Naranjo.
27 Bennett, 31.
28 Naranjo.
29 Beesing, Nogosek, and O'Leary, 144-47.
30 _Ibid.,_ 141-43.
31 _Ibid.,_ 49-98.
32 Palmer, 94
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*BIBLIOGRAPHY*
Anderson, Margaret. _The Unknown Gurdjieff._ London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1962. A description of life among Gurdjieff's
disciples and their devotion to his method of changing their lives.
Beesing, O.P., Maria; Robert Nogosek, C.S.C.; and Patrick
O'Leary, S.J.. _The Enneagram: A Journey of Self Discovery._
Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1984.
Bennett, John G. _Enneagram Studies._ York Beach, Maine: Samuel
Weiser, 1983. Bennett was a disciple of Gurdjieff who lived with
him for a while. He researched Sufism and writes about the
historical roots of the enneagram.
Gurdjieff, George I. _Herald of Coming Good._ New York: Samuel
Weiser, 1973. His first book, stating some of his philosophy.
The following three of Gurdjieff's books are known as _All and
Everything,_ in three series:
______. _Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson,_ 3 vols. First
Series. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976. More of Gurdjieff's
philosophy, meant to introduce people to the strangeness of his
ideas and "destroy, mercilessly...the beliefs and views...about
everything existing in the world."
______. _Meetings with Remarkable Men._ Second Series. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977. This is an autobiography meant to
use stories about his life to give a new vision "required for a new
creation."
______. _Life Is Real Only Then, When "I Am."_ Third Series.
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1975. An introduction and a series of
lectures to continue teaching what he means about the real world
rather than the world of illusion presently believed in.
Keen, Sam. "A Conversation about Ego Destruction with Oscar
Ichazo," _Psychology Today,_ July 1973, 64-72. This is an interview
with Ichazo, one of the few places where he speaks about himself.
Lilly, John C., and Joseph E. Hart. "The Arica Training," in
_Transpersonal Psychologies,_ ed. Charles T. Hart. New York: Harper
and Row, 1975, 329-51. This article gives further background to
Ichazo, including information about occultic practices in his group
and the group's strong attachment to him.
Naranjo, Claudio. "The Enneagram -- Stumbling Block or Stepping
Stone?" Audio tape recorded at the Association of Christian
Therapists, February 1990, San Diego, California. Available through
Diocesan Charismatic Renewal Center, 7654 Herschel Ave., La Jolla,
California 92037. This talk is a rare history of the enneagram's
roots in Ichazo's and Naranjo's own teachings.
Ouspensky, P. D. _The Fourth Way: A Record of Talks and Answers
to Questions Based on the Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff._ New York:
Random House, 1957.
______. _In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown
Teaching._ New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1949. Though the
enneagram symbol is taught in Ouspensky's books, one searches in
vain for information about the enneagram of personality.
Palmer, Helen. _The Enneagram._ San Francisco: Harper and Row,
1988. A popular version of the enneagram that spells out the
various types.
Riordan, Kathleen. "Gurdjieff," in _Transpersonal
Psychologies,_ ed. Charles T. Hart. New York: Harper and Row, 1975,
281-328. A short background to Gurdjieff's thought.
Riso, Don Richard. _Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for
Self-Discovery._ Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
______. _Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to
Personality Types._ Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. Riso
tries to use a more psychological approach but he has not given
outside proof for the system or his own results, as he admits.
Speeth, Kathleen Riordan, and Ira Friedlander. _Gurdjieff:
Seeker of the Truth._ Bibliography compiled by Walter Driscoll. New
York: Harper and Row, 1980. This is the most orderly biography of
Gurdjieff that I know of. The chronology is helpful and the
bibliography is excellent for research purposes.
Wagner, Jerome. "A Descriptive, Reliability, and Validity Study
of the Enneagram Personality Typology." Ph.D., 1979, Loyola
University, Chicago.
______. "Reliability and Validity Study of a Sufi Personality
Typology: The Enneagram," _Journal of Clinical Psychology_ 39,
1983, 712-17.
Waldberg, Michael. _Gurdjieff: An Approach to His Work._ Trans.
Steve Cox. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. A good summary
of Gurdjieff's ideas arranged topically.
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-------------
End of document, CRJ0146A.TXT (original CRI file name),
"Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram"
release A, August 31, 1994
R. Poll, CRI
(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in
the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)
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